Violence On The Gold Coast

These are the homicides committed during 1990, according to the Palm Beach County medical examiner.

-- JAN. 21: Roderic Thornton, 19, of Belle Glade. He was shot in the chest during a fight.

-- JAN. 26: Sipri Pierre, 28. He was visiting friends in West Palm Beach, left to use a nearby pay phone and was shot in the chest and abdomen. The motive may have been robbery.

-- FEB. 2: Terance Kuehne, 30. Two days after being released from the Palm Beach County Jail, he was shot in the chest and shoulder. Deputies arrested Ricky Hodges, 32. The dispute started when Hodges slapped Kuehne`s girlfriend, reports say.

-- FEB. 5: Vernon Howe, 28. Police said a man looking for his wife smashed the kitchen window of a home in the 1100 block of Avenue H in Riviera Beach and fired inside. Howe was found alone in his living room, shot in the chest and abdomen. Richard Mosley, 28, of Riviera Beach was charged with first- degree murder.

-- FEB. 5: Gladys Novoa, 61. Her husband, Ernie Novoa, shot her in the neck and chest and then killed himself in western Palm Beach County.

-- FEB. 6: Peter Helmschrott Sr., 39, of Lake Worth. Helmschrott, owner of Studebaker`s restaurant, was shot in the chest with his own gun after breaking into his girlfriend`s Boynton Beach home, raping her and slicing her throat, police said. A grand jury cleared the woman.

-- FEB. 7: Gladys Till, 65, of West Palm Beach. She died of carbon monoxide poisoning at home. The medical examiner said it appeared someone helped in her death, but no one has been prosecuted.

-- FEB. 13: Huberta Matthews, 33, of Riviera Beach. For unknown reasons, she drew a handgun and began firing at Capt. John Fillyaw, manager of John D. MacArthur Beach State Park in North Palm Beach. Fillyaw, who fired back and killed her, was cleared by a grand jury.

-- FEB. 14: Cynthia Whitaker-Cayson, 21. Her estranged husband came to her workplace in Belle Glade and shot her numerous times. Mark Anthony Cayson was convicted of first-degree murder.

-- FEB. 14: James Morton, 33, of Boynton Beach. Morton, a Boynton Beach auto parts store employee, was stabbed by a co-worker after the two argued about a valve stem for a customer`s tire. Johnny Claude Colson, 25, of Boynton Beach, was convicted of manslaughter.

-- FEB. 19: Mary Landis, 87. Her husband, Jerry Landis, shot her and then killed himself in their mobile home west of Lantana. Mary Landis had been ill.

-- FEB. 24: Pearl Willie Paulk, 26, of Riviera Beach. Her body was found with stab wounds to the chest in Phil Foster Park in Riviera Beach. Police arrested James Cherry Jr., 31, of Riviera Beach in a Washington, D.C., poolroom.

-- FEB. 25: Gregory King, 30, of South Bay. King, a firefighter, was shot in the chest by his wife during a fight at their home. A grand jury cleared the woman.

-- MARCH 2: Audrey Fenner, 74, of Delray Beach. Her stepgrandson, Gary Miller, 25, shot her several times because she would not let him borrow a car to go to work. Miller was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for 25 years.

-- MARCH 2: Theresa Fenner, 55. Her nephew, Gary Miller, 25, shot her numerous times after she unexpectedly came home and found Audrey Fenner`s body.

-- MARCH 7: Annie Lewis, 39. She died of blunt trauma to her head.

-- MARCH 13: Thomas Wood, 50, of Riviera Beach. He was found on his apartment floor with stab wounds.

-- MARCH 17: Michael Oliver, 36. Oliver, a painter, was beaten to death by a bat or a board. Sheriff`s deputies charged Mark Rossi.

-- MARCH 17: Rachel Hurley, 14, of Jupiter. The Jupiter Middle School student was raped and smothered in Carlin Park. The case remains open.

-- MARCH 27: Willie Lee Alexander, 36, of Pahokee. Alexander, a burglary suspect, was fatally shot in the back by a Pahokee police officer. A grand jury found the shooting justifiable.

-- MARCH 28: Sergine Jeannite, 18, of West Palm Beach. Jeannite, three months pregnant, was shot in the head with a .38-caliber gun. A grand jury found the shooting by a neighbor to be an accident.

-- APRIL 12: William Siple, 47. He was beaten with a metal sign post and died of blunt trauma to his head. Transient Carlton Winebrenner, 50, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of his friend.

-- APRIL 12: Reginald Traylor, 18. He was shot during a gun battle in the 100 block of Northwest 13th Avenue in Boynton Beach. Three other people were wounded, two of whom were nearby residents who just happened to be in the wrong place. Corey Adams of Boynton Beach was charged with manslaughter.

-- APRIL 13: Bruce Hunt, 43, of Line Drive, west of West Palm Beach. A fisherman found his body, bound and weighed down with rocks, in a Wellington pond. Police charged Paul Harvey and Joe Lee in his death.

-- APRIL 16: Milton Johnson, 24. He was shot in the head with a .38-caliber weapon on Division Avenue in West Palm Beach. Police arrested Daniel C. Jones, 18.